Blog Candy & New Competition

Well time is flying by & we are getting busier & busier!

Congratulations to our November Winner - Sandie Everett

This months Competition is using a craft punch. If you fancy having a go check out the T&C at http://www.acard4u.co.uk/competitions.php
Good Luck.

We have also added some exclusive digital stamps & printable papers from KaJeD designs. These are very reasonably prices & will save you loads of money as you can print as much or as little as you like, as many times as you like. Watch out for more designs...

Lastly we have some blog candy for you...

9 Artemio 12" x 12" scrapbooking templates worth £45

These are great for creating scrapbooking layouts, but as few can also be used for cardmaking as well.

Show us your scrapbooking pages or cards where you have used a template on there somewhere. This can be Crafters Companion templates, Bazzill templates, W.S. Designs, Hot off the Press etc

We are trying another first Mr Linky, so hopefully it will work.

What you need to do is post a picture on your blog/website & link back to this post, then add your name & link below so we can all come over & have a look.

Closing date is Tuesday 1st December & the winner will be picked at random.

New Poll Trial

Hi. :) We have had lots of fabulous cards & scrapbook pages entries for our October competition, that we thought we'd trial a different way of picking a winner (rather than a hat).

Below you'll see all the entries, which you can click on & see a bigger picture. They are all anonymous to try & make it fairer. All entrants are welcome to spread the word to get votes, but there is only one vote per person though.

Voting will close on Sunday 8th November 12pm GMT
Good luck to all who entered & if you want to give it a try why not visit our competitions page

Halloween Card

Firstly I am sorry for being another bad blogger. :( I didn't mean to but we have been so busy in the shop with lots of new products coming in & then going back out again. lol

Well it's now the end of week 43 & half term is next week, so that means three things...the kids are off school, the clocks go back, and Halloween! Yay I just love this time of year. The beautiful display of reds, oranges & browns as autumn falls & Halloween with warm glowing pumpkins & fabulous oranges, blacks & purples. Not to mention the fabulous costumes & chocolate treats. Yumm... more for me if they don't come knocking. He He.

I know we don't seem to send Halloween cards in the UK but when I saw the Basic Grey Eerie 6" x 6" paper pad I just knew I wanted it. Basic Grey collections just seem to be getting better & better & these mini pads are ideal for cardmakers as they are perfect scaled down versions of the 12" x 12" papers for scrapbooking.

I changed a tag & pocket card slightly so there is a pocket on the front & it also opens ... so I could add more to the inside. :-))

Here is the inside of the card, with an area for writing your message.

Here's a close up of my hand drawn ghost, using my gorgeous Copic Ciao pens to add shading & the Trick or Treat using Dreamweaver Matte Black embossing paste. I love this technique. One tub goes such a long way & it is very easy to do.

Materials used:

A4 black cardstock

Basic Grey Eerie 6" x 6" Paper Pad

Prima Flowers

Hero Arts Black Gemstones

Copic Ciao Marker Pens C-1, C-3 & C-5

Dreamweaver stencils Bats (LL525) and Trick or Treat (LL539)

Dreamweaver Matte Black Embossing Paste + spatula + stencil tape (also available)

Woodware Inverted Corner Punch

Peel offs, black ribbon & alpha stickers from my stash

Peel Offs pens (orange)

Now Autumn is here, you may be scrapping some of your photos, or even making cards with autumn colours or themes? If you are, how about checking out our October Competition. We have had some great entries already, which you can see in our Tweet gallery. You have got to be in it to win it!

Hopefully it won't be as long until I'm back again! Enjoy your extra hour in bed tonight.

Product Reviews

With thousands of products available to crafters these days (wow aren't we lucky) it is sometimes hard to decide which are fabulous, good, ok, essential, bad, value for money or just for show (& to stroke)!

We all have our favourites & not everything suits all, but being able to read & see what the products can do is a help when deciding how to spend your stash allowance.

All our products are carefully chosen from reputable manufacturers who produce quality products,but product reviews are a great way to see what the end users i.e. you, can do with them & what you think of them too.  If you have bought a product from us that you could write a review for we would love to hear from you.

So what do you need to do?

If you have a blog or a website you can write a review & link to the product on our website & also to our blog so your readers can see other reviews. Ideally reviews should be about 50-100 words so you can explain the pros & cons and a picture of your finished craft project would be nice too. This needs to be in your own words so please do not copy & paste from the internet as that breaches copyright laws.

If you do not have a blog or website you can send us the details via email & we will add them to our blog.

Either way please email us so we know where to look.  We will then select some reviews weekly & link back to your blog if applicable & also add 20 points to your account.  (i.e. 2 reviews = free P&P) Please ensure a review has not already been submitted for that product by checking the labels tag "product reviews" in the left hand column.  Please do not be offended if we do not use your review as it will depend upon the numbers & products.

Our first review is for Stix-2 3D Glue Dots, which can be found here http://thehandmadecardblog.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/product-review-3d-craft-dots/

We hope you find this useful & look forward to hearing from you. :)

Our first post...

Hello everyone and welcome to our first post. :)

We wanted to bring you more features & news, so we have taken the plunge & set up this blog. Hopefully time allowing it will get updated at least once a week & hopefully more. As many people hate having newsletters clogging up their inbox we will be using this blog & our twitter page to up date you on everything going on at A Card 4 U. We will still send out the very occassional newsletter though. If you have converted to either our Twitter updates or our blog updates you can un-subscribe yourself from our newsletter in your account area.

I have become addicted to Twitter as it is a quick & easy way to make short announcements like the arrival of new products & special offers (so you will be the first to know), as well as generally chatting to our followers!! It's fun, so if you fancy ago just click on the follow us on Twitter link in the left hand column. You can see the last few entries we have made above the link. These will change constantly!! LOL To follow you will need your own account, or just pop in when you want.

OK to start with here are details of our September Competition.

WIN : £10 worth of shopping points to spend on whatever you like in our shop each month.
September School Competition
Closing Date : 31th July 2009

Summer holidays are over & it is back to school. So this months competition is anything related to back to school. It can be a scrapbook layout of your childs first day at school, or even a Teachers Thank You card or gift.

This competition is open to any craft project using the chosen theme for that month. So whether it is a card, scrapbook layout, ATC, altered item etc email us a picture of your entry and we will add it to our gallery. Maximum size of your picture should be 450 pixels x 450 pixels. If you are unable to resize your scan/photo we will be able to.

• There is a limit of two entries per person.
• All entries must be received by Friday 30th September. Late entries will not be accepted.
• Winning entry is picked at random from all eligible entries.

Full terms & conditions can be found at www.acard4u.co.uk/competitions.php

We have lots more to come (filling a huge box for blog candy as we speak ;oD ), tutorials, reviews ...

so hope you can come back soon.